failure for learners of EnglishPowered by COBUILD (feɪljəʳ)

Word forms: failures

Definitions

1. uncountable noun

Failure is a lack of success in doing or achieving something, especially in relation to a particular activity. ⇒ This policy is doomed to failure. ⇒ Three attempts on the British 200-metre record also ended in failure. ⇒ ...feelings of failure.

2. countable noun

If something is afailure, it is not a success. ⇒ The marriage was a failure and they both wanted to be free of it. ⇒ His six-year transition programme has by no means been a complete failure.

3. countable noun

If you say that someone is afailure, you mean that they have not succeeded in a particular activity, or that they are unsuccessful at everything they do. ⇒ Elgar received many honors and much acclaim and yet he often considered himself a failure. ⇒ I just felt I had been a failure in my personal life.

4. uncountable noun [N to-inf, oft poss N]

Your failureto do a particular thing is the fact that you do not do it, even though you were expected to do it. ⇒ She accused the Foreign Office of disgraceful failure to support British citizens arrested overseas. ⇒ ...their failure to get the product mix right.

5. variable noun [oft n N]

If there is a failure of something, for example a machine or part of the body, it goeswrong and stopsworking or developing properly. ⇒ There were also several accidents mainly caused by engine failures on take-off. ⇒ He was being treated for kidney failure. ⇒ Researchers found an almost total crop failure and a severe shortage of drinking water.

6. variable noun

If there is a failure of a business or bank, it is no longer able to continue operating. [business] ⇒ Business failures rose 16% last month.

7. variable noun [Nof n]

If you say that someone has a failure of a particular quality or ability, you mean that they do not have enough of it. ⇒ There is, too, a simple failure of imagination. ⇒ He remained on his knees for a long time afterwards, ashamed by his failure of nerve.